"Every time a president invokes executive privilege, there are 3 relevant audiences he has to think about: the courts, Congress & the public. The Constitution erred on the side of transparency, with no mention whatsoever of executive privilege in its original text. The worst part when presidents abuse the privilege, they risk generating legal precedents that will make it harder for future presidents to use the privilege in settings when they legitimately need it. Our constitutional system is defined by a balance between the public’s need for transparency and the government’s need to have a zone of secrecy around decision making. Both are important, yet they are mutually exclusive. Americans can tolerate some secrecy, particularly when it is rooted in protection of the public’s interests. But when the claims appear to hide wrongdoing, they begin to curdle."
At www.nytimes.com
